Strong Enough
by Darkchilde
Summary: Sometimes being a friend is the hardest thing to do...


Disclaimer: Their not mine. They belong to Fox Family. This story is the product of too much Sheryl Crow and tropical punch at three in the morning. ANd um...that's all I have to say about it. Please tell me what you think, and if enough people want one, I'll write a sequal!  
  
Strong Enough  
  
  
Daisy Lipenowski really REALLY wanted to hit something. Or some one. Very, VERY hard. And put either a VERY big dent in said object, or a VERY black bruise on said someone. Yeah, that's what she wanted to do. She wanted to hit someONE very very hard.   
  
This was probably the first time that she had ever WISHED her father was around.   
  
Daisy slammed into the girls dorm, closing the heavy wooden door behind her with a very LOUD thump. It startled both Juliette and Shelby who were stretched out across their respective beds, reading and doing their homework.  
  
"What's up?" Juliette asked, surprised by the rage etched across Daisy's normally emotionless face. The girl in question just shot fire at the perky young woman with her eyes, enough that Jules was frightened.   
  
"Yeah, Daisy, what's wrong with you now?" Shelby asked. Her words were flipant, but there was an undercurrent of worry in her voice.   
  
"I DON"T wanna talk about it." Daisy growled, flopping face down on her bed and burying her head under her pillow.  
  
"Ookay. I've gotta go anyway, I'm meeting Auggie in five minutes. Are you sure you're okay?" Juliette asked, rising form her spot on her bed.   
  
"Go AWAY." Was the slightly muffled answer.   
  
Juliette lefted, looking slightly hurt. As soon as she was out of earshot, Shelby pounced on her best friend.   
  
"Okay, what's you're deal?" Shelby asked, dropping the book she was reading to look at her seriously annoyed best friend.  
  
"I told you, I don't want to talk about it."   
  
"Well, you look like you need to talk about it." Shelby put in, looking at the young woman's posture and hidden face.   
  
"No I don't. Go away." Daisy muttered, silently begging Shelby to leave, so she could scream and cry in peace.   
  
"Daisy..." Shelby started.  
  
"Shel--please?" The young Goth girl finally pulled her face out from under the pillow, and begged her friend with her eyes. Shelby looked at her for a long moment, before finally giving in and standing up.  
  
"Alright. I'll be in the lodge if you need to talk." Shelby told her, moving to leave.   
  
"Thanks." Daisy called after. She waited three minutes after she heard the door close before she stood up from her bed. Very calmly she moved to her bookcase and looked at the assorted and heavy books resting there.   
  
Calmly, too calmly, she picked one up and tested it's weight by heft. It was thick and heavy--"Crime and Punishment" the cover said.   
  
"A fitting title." Daisy said out loud, before flinging the book as hard as she could at the wall.   
  
It hit the wall with aloud thump, and was quickly followed by another book. The rae began to boil over inside of her, and her aim suffered for it. She knocked one of the lamps off of one of the night stands, and it fell to the floor with a crash.   
  
A scream welled in her throat, but she pushed it down and continued to throw her books at the wall, hurling them as quickly as she could, each soild thump against the wall easying a fraction of her pain. However, one of the books DIDN'T thump solidly against the wall. Instead, it sailed through the closed window, shattering the glass.   
  
The shattering glass surprised her and she winced, before grabbing for another book. Another book soon followed the first book out of the broken window, breaking more glass with it. Screams of rage and pain and sorrow rolled in her throat, but she refused to let them out. One more book sailed through the borken window, breaking more glass.  
  
However, this time it was accompained by a pitiful "OW!" that Daisy couldn't hear over the roar of sorrow in her ears.   
  
Ezra Friedkin looked down at the book lying in the snow at his feet. The same book that has just sailed through the girl's dorm window and smacked him in the head. "Heart of Darkness." He read the title outloud. "One of Daisy's. Now, the question is, why is someone throwing it at me?"   
  
He bent to scoop up the book and moved toward the door, still pondering the question to his answer. He opened the door, but jumped back when a book was flung at the wall just a few inches from his head.   
  
"Ahh! Hey, what did I do?!" Ezra asked, ducking as more books where thrown his way. Daisy finally realized that he was standing there, and quite throwing her books at the door.   
  
"Go away, Ezra please." Daisy snapped, her teeth gritted.   
  
"Um, no?" The young man tried, looking at the young woman with worried blue eyes.   
  
"Please?" Daisy beg/demanded.   
  
"Not until you tell me why you're throwing books." He told her, dropping Heart of Darkness on the floor and looked at her. "That hit me in the head." Ezra pushed his point by rubbing the spot it hit and giving her an exggrated look of pain. "And it hurt. Don't you think I deserve to know why you're throwing things at me?"  
  
"I'm not throwing things at you." Daisy allowed, flopping down on her bed, and burying her head in her hands.   
  
"Well, it hit me, so that amounts to the same thing." Ezra informed her, moving toward her slowly, afraid that at any moment she might resort back to her book throwing tactics.   
  
"Sorry about that." The girl muttered so softly he almost didn't hear her.   
  
"What's up?" Ezra wanted to know, taking another step forward and corssing his arms over his chest.   
  
"Nothing."  
  
"Nothing? If it was nothing, why're you throwing books?" The curly haired young man sat down on the edge of the bed across from Daisy's. He thought it was Shelby's, but he wasn't sure.   
  
"I told you, go away." Daisy demanded, laying down on her bed and turning her back to him. Her friend studied her with his deep blue eyes, worried suddenly.   
  
"Let me guess. You...were abducted by aliens intent on destorying the world by forcing people to throw books at everything? No? Okay, let me try again...you...were practicing for the Shrew Olympics?" Daisy glared at him over her shoulder, her pinched features clearly telling him that his attempts to make her smile were not working.  
  
"Sorry." Ezra apoligized, slightly worried that his antics hadn't at least gotten a Mona Lisa smile out of his friend. "Come on, tell me what it is."   
  
"Don't push me, Ezra!" Daisy snapped, her voice laced with venom. "I don't want to talk about it."  
  
"Well excuse me." Ezra muttered, eyeing her taunt frame. "I was just worried about a friend. I won't do it again." He stood up to leave, deciding that if she wanted to be alone THAT badly, he'd leave.  
  
"Why?" Daisy asked, her voice thicker then it should have been. It stopped him in his tracks and turned him around so that he faced the young woman was laying across the bed.  
  
"Why what?" Ezra asked her, his voice gentle.   
  
"Why do you worry about me?" Her voice nearly borke his heart, it was so pitifully small, nothing like the strong independent Daisy that he knew.   
  
"I told you...you're my friend. I care about you. A lot." He told her, chosing his words carefully. Daisy rolled over and looked up at him, her dark eyes wet. She looked like she was just barely holding onto tears. Ezra's heart twisted, and he moved toward her, and knelt beside her bed. He reached out to brush a lock of her hair out of her face, his fingers caressing her face just a little bit. A teardrop rolled down her face and she sniffed, reaching to brush it away. He beat her to it, wiping away the water droplet with his index finger. His hand stayed on her face, tucking more of her hair behind her ear.  
  
"What happened?" Ezra asked her quietly, his hand resting on her cheek. Daisy sniffed and sat up quickly, scurbbing at her face. He moved his hand back away from her and looked at her, hoping for an answer.   
  
"Nothing."  
  
"You don't cry over nothing." Ezra informed her gently, lacing his fingers together and balancing on the balls of his face. "Actually, you don't cry over anything."  
  
"Gee thanks. Make me out to be a heartless bitch, why don't you?" Daisy snapped. Ezra smiled a little bit, glad to get a more Daisy-like reaction out of her then tossed books.   
  
"So you gonna tell me what happened, or am I gonna have to sneak into Peter's office again and find out what the deal is?" Ezra demanded, looking at her expectantly. "I would also like to let you know, that if you choose not to tell me, I will do that, and if I get caught, it will be on your head."  
  
"Well, I wouldn't want something like that on my head." Daisy let a small smile pull at the corner of her lips.   
  
"I'm glad." Was all Ezra would say, as he looked at the young woman expectantly. Daisy looked away from Ezra for a moment, then back at him her eyes taking on the watery glassy look they had had a minute ago.   
  
"I got a...a phone call. From my aunt. My father's sister. Seems he feel off the wagon again." The girl began. Ezra didn't say anything, just let her talk. She didn't say anything for the longest time, but somehow, Ezra knew that she wasn't quite done yet. "He came to work drunk one to many times. He got fired. And now he doesn't have the money to pay the mortage..."  
  
"Or titution?" Ezra finished, his tone betraying his horror.   
  
"Yeah." Daisy murmured, looking away from her friend.   
  
"You're leaving then?" Ezra asked, his tone making Daisy look up. He looked--utterly devestated, was the only way she could put it.  
  
"Maybe. Unless Peter'll let me stay on the scholarship..." She told him, looking at him in surprise. His face cleared just a little bit.  
  
"Yeah! He'll let you do that!" Ezra sounded as though he desperately needed to believe that. The young woman tilted her head to the side, slightly surprised by his reactions.   
  
"Would you really miss me that much, if I was gone?" She asked, surprised. Ezra looked down at his hands, not wanting to meet her eye. The silence hung between them for a long second.  
  
"I miss you whenever you're not around." He admitted finally, so quitely Daisy wasn't sure she heard him properly.  
  
"Really? I don't...think...anyone's ever missed me before." She told him softly, pushing her hair away from her face nervously.  
  
"I...I miss you enough for everyone." Ezra told her softly. Silently, he cursed himself. What the hell was he doing? Why had he told her that? Well, after admitting that he missed her all the time, he figured that he couldn't get himself in any deeper, so he might as well go all the way.   
  
"Why?" Daisy wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer, because she thought she already knew what he was going to say. Once again, the silence was unbearable, but neither of them could dredge up the courage to speak.   
  
"I...I...don't know." Ezra finished lamely, the words he wanted to say seemingly stuck in the back of his throat.   
  
"Oh." Daisy was relieved. She didn't want to have to go through the pain that came with turning Ezra down, again.   
  
"I gotta go." Ezra whispered, rising to his feet and moving toward the door.  
  
"See ya later." Was all she could manage, watching the young man leave. When he disappeared out the door, she flopped back down on her bed, more depressed then she was when he came in here--but also somewhat happy. True, she was gonna have to tell Peter about her Dad losing his job, and she might have to go home--but, knowing Peter, she probably woundn't have to. There was a reason to be happy, though that wasn't the real reason she DID have that little bit of joy mixed in with all her sorrrow and pain.  
  
At least someone missed her. 


End file.
